The Coronation Durbar of 1911

This is not exactly a heraldic article, but it is close – it was about the spectacular ceremony in Delhi where the recently-crowned King George V went to receive the submission of the ruling princes in person. I wrote it on a lark in 1975, after reading Sir John Fortescue’s lavish eyewitness Narrative of the Visit to India … (London, 1912). I sent it off the Horizon, a hard-cover history magazine, and to my amazement they accepted it and paid me for it. They also edited it down somewhat (which it probably needed), and replaced my straightforward title with the achingly trite “High Noon for the Empire.” The change of title still rankles more than 40 years later – I am reverting here to my original title. It appeared in the Winter 1976 issue (Volume 18, No. 1, pp. 56-61). It was the first piece I ever published anywhere outside of student media, and (except for an article in the newsletter of a volunteer radio station) the last one I published under my own name for more than 30 years.